Category Archives: grocery shopping

Since both Brent + I take our lunches to work and we only eat out about once a week for dinner, I like to do a big grocery shop every week or two on the weekend.

Our grocery trips involve some planning. I first look through the food ads we get in our mailbox or check them out online. We get flyers to about 4 stores, but I usually stick to shopping at just one or two per trip. I figure out what is on sale and what I can base our meals around. If we are craving a certain item that day/week I can hunt around to see who has the ingredients on sale. I think spending some time up front saves money and saves us from the “we don’t have anything for dinner let’s go out” excuse. I also like to meal plan in that if we are getting cilantro or something for one dish, we figure out another recipe to use it with so we don’t waste it. Also- we live a few blocks from three different grocery stores so if we miss something, it’s no big deal to pop in for a quick item.

This week, we went to Costco + Rainbow. Costco has amazing deals on produce and chips. They have great deals on everything, but we just don’t need 10 pounds of one thing most of the time. Rainbow is where we go most of the time (with Trader Joe’s and Target a close second!) as it is typically the cheapest. (It is the SuperSaver or Shoppers of Minneapolis.)

bounty! (click on it to enlarge)

Here it all is. Brent + I usually shop together, and when we do there is always a few ridiculous items thrown in the cart. For example: 10lbs of potatoes (we only needed 3- but these were just as cheap as 3 potatoes. weird.) and Salt + Vinegar potato chips (that he opened inside Costco). Admittedly, I bought some ridiculousness too. Kraft Mac + Cheese (Shapes! So good!), margarine (bad for you, good for baking for your co-workers) and the wrong flavor of yogurt (hopefully Brent will eat Raspberry Cheesecake!). The Fritos, while not healthy will be toppers to some chili this week.

We spent about $70 this week. That is within our budget, but I like to spend a little less. You will notice there isn’t much fruit in our bounty, but that is due to having a ton leftover from last week.

When do you grocery shop? Do you plan before you go? Do you try to stick to a budget, and what is it? What on earth am I going to do with 10 lbs of potatoes?!?